The Barber of Seville – State Opera South Australia 2021 by Yvonne Frindle

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AN OPERA BUFFA IN TWO ACTS Music by Gioachino Rossini Libretto by Cesare Sterbini after the comedy Le Barbier de Séville by Pierre Beaumarchais COUNT ALMAVIVA DR BARTOLO ROSINA FIGARO DON BASILIO BERTA FIORELLO/OFFICER AMBROGIO NOTARY GUITARIST CONDUCTOR DIRECTOR DESIGNER LIGHTING DESIGNER ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR FANDANGO CHOREOGRAPHY ASSOCIATE CHOREOGRAPHER ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

John Longmuir Douglas McNicol Katie Stenzel Morgan Pearse Pelham Andrews Teresa LaRocca Jeremy Tatchell Nicholas Cannon Daniel Goodburn Emanuel Auciello Graham Abbott Lindy Hume Tracy Grant Lord Matthew Marshall Jason Barry-Smith Rafael Bonachela* Carol Wellman Kelly Clara Solly-Slade

STATE OPERA ENSEMBLE ADELAIDE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 11, 13, 16, 18, 20 November 2021 HER MAJESTY’S THEATRE, ADELAIDE Duration: 2 hours and 45 minutes, including one 20-minute interval Sung in Italian with English surtitles A CO-PRODUCTION BETWEEN OPERA QUEENSLAND, SEATTLE OPERA AND NEW ZEALAND OPERA *ORIGINAL FANDANGO CHOREOGRAPHY BY RAFAEL BONACHELA, BY ARRANGEMENT WITH SYDNEY DANCE COMPANY SURTITLES COURTESY OF THE JAMES & DIANA RAMSAY FOUNDATION

WELCOME TO THE

OPERA

FROM OUR PRODUCTION PARTNER, THE FRIENDS Comedy, love, colour, fast paced action! What better way to lift spirits and reenergise – not only ourselves but the performing arts – than State Opera’s production of The Barber of Seville. The pandemic has affected all of us in one way or another, but particularly those working in the performing arts and their audiences. So it is that The Friends are thrilled to be production sponsors of The Barber of Seville, one of Rossini’s best known and loved operas. Settle in to be transported and entertained by this new production, a cooperative venture between Opera Queensland, Seattle Opera and NZ Opera. The Friends of the State Opera of South Australia Inc. is a volunteer, not-for-profit organisation that has enjoyed a close association with State Opera since the company’s inception as a statutory body in 1976, providing not only direct support to State Opera productions, but separately contributing to the development of our young and emerging singers, musicians and creatives through audience participation, grants and scholarships. Over the years, local artists supported by The Friends have gone on to become

performers and creatives with State Opera South Australia and many have achieved national and international acclaim. Our state is enriched by having an opera company that is internationally acclaimed, innovative and showcases the breadth of Australian talent through its programming, and whose mission is to produce more opera for more people. The Friends are committed ambassadors who want to see State Opera continue to engage with and contribute to South Australia’s varied and rich cultural fabric for generations to come. When you become a member of The Friends you contribute to the survival and development of opera in South Australia. As the curtain goes up, I hope you enjoy this flamboyant and spirited production of The Barber of Seville as much as The Friends have enjoyed supporting it.

Dr Beata M Byok PRESIDENT

The Friends of the State Opera of SA Inc.

A Special Thank You On behalf of everyone at State Opera, we want to mark the retirement of a very important person in all of our lives at the theatre – Mr Ciro Cantone, BASS Client Services Executive at Adelaide Festival Centre. Ciro has been a part of this institution for 34 years, and for 22 of those years he has expertly cared for State Opera patrons, subscribers, artists and staff. His commitment to customer service is unparalleled, and his welcoming smile, support and guidance has ensured that tens of thousands of opera patrons have enjoyed a memorable and wonderful experience. Thank you Ciro, you will be missed.

FROM STATE OPERA SOUTH AUSTRALIA Rossini once dared to say “how wonderful opera would be if there were no singers”. (We certainly do not share that sentiment!) And yet his Barber of Seville delights in showcasing what singers can do. We love this opera for its madcap wit and sheer joy, its vocal fireworks, its impudence. We are proud to bring you our final offering for 2021, showcasing some of the best Australian singers, the State Opera Ensemble and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra – all under the inspired baton of Graham Abbott. Lindy Hume’s production of this masterpiece, featuring a brilliant design by Tracy Grant Lord and Matthew Marshall, has triumphed in Brisbane and regional Queensland, Seattle, Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Perth. And now Her Majesty’s is ready to echo to the familiar call of “Fi-gar-rooooo”. The Barber of Seville is a tonic for our times – a look-nohands romp, with spectacular singing and an abundance of energy and wit. Surely this is something we need now more than ever. It has been yet another rollercoaster year at State Opera and we are both starting to forget what normality feels like. Luckily we find ourselves rather suited to a work life filled with constant change, big ideas, lots of decisions and agility. And despite all manner of restrictions, we’ve managed to have a fantastic year filled with the great music of Carousel, Sweeney Todd, Love Burns, The TellTale Heart and now The Barber of Seville. Next year is already looking full and there are quite a few more exciting announcements to come.

As always, the part you play in everything we do remains at the centre of our universe. Your attendance, your donations, your advocacy and your willingness to share in our success has a multiplying effect. Thank you. As we look towards the New Year, I hope you will consider deepening the value of your attendance here tonight with a donation to State Opera. All the talented people you see before you, and the ones you don’t see backstage, don’t come cheap (and they are worth every penny)! We funnel as much of our income as we can directly into productions and performances; that is where your financial support will make every bit of difference. Donating is easy: just visit stateopera.com.au/donate Our special thanks to those of you who’ve already donated, sponsored and contributed in so many ways. Thanks also to our partners, the Board of Directors and the stupendous team at State Opera South Australia both behind the scenes and on stage. We are now on a roll… and together we really are delivering on a dream – more opera for more people!

Stuart Maunder AM ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Yarmila Alfonzetti EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

State Opera South Australia

MORGAN PEARSE (FIGARO) WITH THE NZ OPERA CAST (PHOTO: DAVID ROWLAND)

LAUGH OUT

LOUD

DIRECTOR’S NOTE This production was created in 2016 as a salute to Rossini’s comic genius on the 200th anniversary of its famously disastrous opening night in Rome in 1816, in which one singer ended up with a bloodied nose, the tenor improvised disastrously, a stray cat wandered across the stage and the audience booed. Rossini was unfazed – he knew he had written a hit show, and time has proven him correct. Is The Barber of Seville the greatest sitcom ever? Maybe, maybe not. First show me another sitcom that has maintained its global popularity for more than a few decades, let alone 200 years, and we can compare. Rossini was only 24 when he wrote Barber in 13 days. When he wrote La Cenerentola (Cinderella) a year later, he took a little longer – three weeks! His Rosina (and Cinderella), Geltrude Righetti, was the same age, and both works explode with their youthful energy, velocity and naughtiness. Both were based on subversive political ideas: the possibility of love bringing together nobility, the bourgeoisie and the lower classes. Rossini’s characters are anarchic, flawed and full of humanity. There are obvious parallels between the characters of Dandini (Cenerentola) and Figaro – brothers in scratchy master/valet relationships. Curiously, both are skilled barbers. Tracy Grant Lord’s fantastic design is a chaotic collage of doors – an illogical architecture that makes perfect sense: first in a streetscape and then inside a crazy, fusty old house with many rooms and a suspicious old man guarding the keys. Trapped inside, a young girl growing into a woman hears enticing news from Figaro of the world beyond those doors – a world of freedom and excitement, of romance and adventure. Outside her window, the Count Almaviva dreams of breaking down the doors to rescue her. The Barber of Seville is about the battle between younger and older generations – no prizes for guessing which side of the battle the composer was on. To borrow the military analogy, Almaviva, disguised as a drunken soldier, slurs to Rosina’s crusty old guardian Bartolo: “You want to fight? Good! This is the trench, and you are the enemy!” Rosina is both battleground and prize in this war, which will be won by strategy and resourcefulness. The odds seem stacked in Bartolo’s favour. He has the prisoner, the keys and a ragbag army: crazy Basilio running intelligence and propaganda,

Berta and Ambrogio as the spies and gatekeepers (although one senses that in their hearts they too long for liberation). The “poor student” Lindoro has only his youthful audacity and a series of hare-brained schemes cooked up by his exservant Figaro. Of course young love triumphs in the end. In 1825, The Barber of Seville was the first full-length opera performed in New York, with the teenage Maria Malibran, a superstar in the making, playing Rosina in a cast that included her father as Almaviva and her brother as Figaro. It was a sensation. America immediately took Barber to its heart, and it’s not hard to see why. The unashamedly showy character of Figaro is the very embodiment of the American spirit of enterprise and optimism. An ambitious self-made man, Figaro loves his work. He makes himself indispensable to his clients, in turn his usefulness and charisma makes him money. And money makes him a free man: Seville’s most sought-after businessman, no less. Who needs the class system? In a merit-based society, anyone with a work ethic and chutzpah can succeed (Donald Trump, anyone?)! Figaro’s dazzling aria “Largo al factotum” is probably too famous for its own good, but it’s simply the best entrance aria ever written. When the orchestra strikes up that famous tune, more than 200 years after it was written, it’s still guaranteed to send a shot of adrenalin from stage to audience and back again, reminding us, here in the digital age on the other side of the planet, of Rossini’s genius for comedy. Lindy Hume AM © 2021

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Enjoy the music, the drama and the excitement in the company of F riends

MAKING MUSIC WITH

ROSSINI

CONDUCTOR’S NOTE The Australian-born British writer on opera Charles Osborne once asserted that the three greatest Italian comic operas are Donizetti’s Elixir of Love and Don Pasquale, and Rossini’s Barber of Seville. Having conducted both the Donizetti works, it’s now a thrill for me to finally add Rossini’s most famous opera to my repertoire here in Adelaide. It’s staggering to think that when he signed the contract in Rome for a new comic opera in December 1815 – before even the subject had been chosen, let alone the libretto – Rossini was obliged to deliver the completed score for the start of rehearsals in just three weeks. Doubtless work continued during the run-up to the premiere on 20 February 1816, and given this pressure, it’s not Speaking of contracts… surprising that some The tenor who created parts of the opera are from earlier the role of Almaviva in recycled works.

1816, Manuel García, was so famous that his fee for the opening season was higher than Rossini’s.

The most famous example of Rossini cutting corners is the Overture, which received its third outing in Barber. In 1813, Rossini produced Aureliano in Palmira (Aurelian in Palmyra) in Milan. It was for this a serious drama set in Roman times that the overture you’ll hear tonight was originally composed. Then, in 1815, Rossini began a long association with the city of Naples with a drama called Elisabetta, regina d’Inghilterra (Elizabeth, Queen of England). He recycled his Roman history overture from Aureliano for this new opera, set in the 16th century. Just four months later, with his deadline looming for the new comedy for Rome, Rossini pressed his delightful E major overture into service once again for The Barber of Seville and, miraculously, it fits perfectly.

We don’t know what alterations Rossini made to the overture (if any) when he premiered Barber in 1816; the rest of the opera is written for an orchestra with fewer winds and brass than he had available in Milan in 1813. Opera companies today deal with this in different ways; I’ve decided to use a reconstruction of the overture which slightly alters the wind parts to match the rest of the opera. A word of explanation, too, regarding the recitatives or sung dialogue. These days it’s traditional to use a harpsichord or fortepiano (a piano modelled on late-18th-century design) to accompany the recitatives, just as it is for Mozart operas like The Marriage of Figaro (written 20 years before Barber). But it’s also very acceptable to play Mozart’s piano music on the modern piano. Ditto Beethoven’s piano music, which is contemporary with Rossini. So why not Rossini’s recits? Using a modern piano in these performances strikes me as a sensible alternative to the harpsichord or fortepiano, especially in theatres that may be larger than those in which Rossini worked. But over and above these considerations is the sparkling wit of Rossini’s timeless music, which is a privilege to perform. It’s hugely challenging, for all its familiarity, and hugely rewarding to work on. In this opera (the 17th of his 39 works for the stage), Rossini seems to discover perfect timing at every turn. We hope you have as much fun as we are! Graham Abbott © 2021

DESIGNING THE

BARBER of SE

We spoke to designer Tracy Grant Lord about the inspiration behind the zany, whacky world of The Barber of Seville, where chaos and craziness run amok.

Doors and windows The first thing you see in tonight’s Barber of Seville is a proscenium arch made entirely from doors. The inspiration for this came from a wall of doors that Lindy Hume had seen during a visit to a renovation yard. Her vision, as she described it to Tracy Grant Lord, was to employ the style of classic physical comedy represented by great sitcom comedians – such as Michael Richards (Kramer) in Seinfeld – and their ability to extract immortal theatrical moments simply from an entrance or an exit. So doors were needed, and windows too. Colour: controlled chaos “There’s a huge amount of vibrancy in the set design and in the costumes,” says Tracy. “So you’ll see the grungy greens and yellows of the Bartolo’s wallpapered world, which contrasts with the vibrancy and passion of Rosina, with rose pink and red, and then Figaro’s purples kind of cut through the centre of it. Balancing it all comes down to intuition, like creating a meal as a cook or perhaps a conductor with an orchestra.”

LEFT: Rosina’s Spanish costume for the

final Fandango in Act II. RIGHT: Period styling and grungy greens underline Dr Bartolo’s fusty outlook.

Eclectic Ideas were collated from far and wide – from the fearless expressiveness of British designer John Galliano to the eccentricity and downright strangeness of The Addams Family. “The process was a bit like a mynah bird – collecting a series of signature costuming looks to amplify the characters. Without getting locked into specific historical periods, but choosing the most accessible visual storytelling device to get the idea across, whether that’s contemporary or period.” Letting loose Apart from Figaro, nearly all the characters have costume changes that chart their development through the day. Rosina’s governess Berta, for example, begins with a fairly regimented mid-20th-century look – “drab, central-European utility clothing” – but by the end she’s letting loose and her costume reflects this.

EVILLE 200 years of Barber This production was made in 2016 for the 200th anniversary of the opera, and it draws from the whole 200-year period to tell the story. “Lindy did suggest that the oldest characters in the show – Ambrogio, Basilio and Bartolo – could come from the oldest part of that 200year window, giving them a fusty, 19th-century feel. And by contrast the younger characters – Rosina and Count Almaviva, even Figaro – should have a more contemporary feel to them.” Spanish style “In Spanish style the costuming is flamboyant, lush and seductive with swish suits and sweeping capes for the men and florals and frills aplenty for the women. And the level and intensity of the colour also comes from the Spanish setting. Culturally, there’s a fearlessness around the use of colour and decoration.”

Pitch-perfect lighting “I should mention the extraordinary talent of our lighting designer, Matthew Marshall,” says Tracy. “Lindy and I can put a production on the stage, but it’s Matt who illuminates and amplifies the story, the colour on the stage. And he has a pitch-perfect musical brain – he places light on stage in a very musical way.”

TOP: If Figaro reminds you of Tim

Minchin, you’re not alone. CENTRE: Count Almaviva sheds his embroidered Spanish finery to become the “penniless student” Lindoro – the first of his three disguises. BOTTOM: The neighbours of Seville SKETCHES: TRACY GRANT LORD

AOFBARBER

QUALITY

FROM BEAUMARCHAIS TO ROSSINI Rossini’s Barber of Seville is still opera’s greatest – and most popular – comic hit. Even before the curtain goes up, the audience settles in delighted anticipation to a tune familiar to millions who’ve never set foot in an opera house. The French novelist Stendhal reported in his Life of Rossini: “The Overture to the Barber caused great amusement in Rome. The audience heard – or, rather, imagined that it heard – a musical dialogue compounded of all the threats and blustering of the elderly, jealous and infatuated guardian, and all the plaintive sighs of his pretty ward.” Rossini no doubt enjoyed the irony that the overture had been written, not for this comedy, but for a serious opera. Genius under pressure So familiar is The Barber of Seville that it’s easy to take for granted how perfectly the music suits the subject. This is astonishing, given that the opera was composed in 13 days – some say – and certainly in no more than three weeks. The urgency had to do with problems choosing a subject and a librettist. Rossini signed a contract for an opera with Rome’s Argentina Theatre in December 1815, anticipating an opening night in February 1816, but his time for composing was reduced by delays caused, it is thought, when the Spanish tenor Manuel García (who

was to star in the cast) refused a libretto as too vulgar. It may have been Rossini himself who came up with the solution of adapting Beaumarchais’s play Le Barbier de Séville, and also suggested who should make the adaptation: Cesare Sterbini, who’d just made his debut as a librettist with Rossini’s serious opera Torvaldo e Dorliska. Rossini had almost certainly been thinking about the subject for some time and Sterbini’s libretto was good enough for Rossini to turn the pressure of the deadline to good account: as he composed, ideas came one after another – memorable ideas. Figaro’s alter ego Beaumarchais originally intended his play to be a light comedy mixed with songs based on Spanish airs he’d collected in Madrid. The music was a hit with the play’s first audience (in Paris in 1775), but it was Beaumarchais’s words that made a sensation. Audiences recognised Figaro, the “barber” of the title, as the alter ego of Pierre-Augustin (Caron) de Beaumarchais – watchmaker, inventor, harp teacher to the daughters of Louis XV, judge, diplomat, spy, arms dealer to the American and French Revolutions, eternal litigant and… writer. Beaumarchais owes his enduring fame, especially outside France, to two operas based on his plays: Rossini’s Barber and Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro. Ironically, Beaumarchais seems to disparage

opera: he writes in the preface to Le Barbier, “the only singing in a drama should be a continuation of speaking”, and his Figaro says, “what isn’t worth saying, is sung.” A play and opera about real people Beaumarchais put real people on stage, speaking naturally. This directness made the comedy novel and appealing. The plot outline was ancient, as the author tells:

“An old man in love wants to marry his ward tomorrow; a more dexterous young lover forestalls him, and makes her his wife on the very day, under the guardian’s nose, in his own house. There’s the gist of it – which could with equal success have been made into a tragedy, a comedy, a drama, an opera, etc. Is Molière’s Miser any different?” Beaumarchais’s characters are ordinary people, mostly of “middle rank”, with ordinary emotions. He claimed to want “to make an undemanding, amusing play, a kind of imbroglio” (a complicated state of affairs) and it was enough that the schemer is no scoundrel, but “a funny kind of bloke, a carefree man who laughs equally at his successes and his failures”. This schemer, he explains, is Figaro “the barber, fine talker, bad poet, impudent musician, great guitar strummer and one-time manservant of the Count.” He makes his first appearance just as the Count has failed with his serenade under Rosina’s window. Enter Figaro, singing his aria “Make way for the factotum of the city”. This is a man who lives by

Portrait of Rossini made by Constance Mayer in 1820, just four years after the premiere of The Barber of Seville

his wits, pitting real “quality” against entitlement of social rank. Figaro sets the tone here: goodhumoured, playful ridicule – Beaumarchais’s tone. The useless precaution This Figaro needs a worthy foil, so Beaumarchais made Bartolo, the outwitted guardian, a bit less foolish than is usual in plots of this type. The result is livelier action and more anxiety as to whether the schemers will succeed – more drama and more amusement. The subtitle of both opera and play is “The Useless Precaution”: Bartolo’s precaution. And how the guardian is treated marks one of the main differences between Rossini’s Barber of Seville and the opera it soon caused to be virtually forgotten, Giovanni Paisiello’s Barber of Seville (1782). When Rossini’s Barber premiered in Rome in 1816, Paisiello was living in retirement in Naples. His Barber was still in the repertory and in Rome Paisiello had his supporters. Rossini tried to disarm any hostility, not – as Stendhal claimed – by asking the old man for permission to set the play to music again, but by titling his version Almaviva, and including in the printed libretto a notice:

“maestro Gioachino Rossini, so as not to be accused of engaging in an audacious rivalry with the immortal author who preceded him, expressly required that The Barber of Seville be completely versified anew, and that new situations be added for musical pieces in the modern theatrical taste.”

The truth is, Rossini and Sterbini took little notice of Paisiello’s libretto, basing their text on the original play. In Paisiello’s Barber the protagonist is really Bartolo. In Rossini’s version, again despite the original title Almaviva, the Count is not the leading figure, and often Figaro seems to be pulling the strings. But the characters are more than puppets, they are strongly drawn, coming to life in words and music. So the opera becomes more than a series of brilliantly plotted comic situations hilariously realised in music, although it is that as well. A standout among Rossini’s operas With dramatic and comic imagination of this quality, it’s easy to understand why, despite an opening night fiasco, Rossini’s Barber was quickly taken into audience’s hearts. And when Beethoven met Rossini in Vienna (in 1822 when the Italian was at the height of his dizzying fame) he famously told him “above all, make more Barbers!” The standing of Rossini’s other operas, comic and serious, after declining from the 1830s on, has been on the rise for more than a century now. His Barber of Seville, however, has remained steadfastly popular everywhere, even when the kind of singing Rossini expected was in eclipse. Rossini’s conception for Barber applied the vocal virtuosity of bel canto in a new, comic context. In serious opera, the display of vocal skill proved the character was of

high rank; in comic opera it could be funny and pointed. His aria for Bartolo “Un dottor della mia sorte” was so difficult that some buffo basses replaced it with a substitute by another composer. And the role of Almaviva calls for a tenore di grazia (or leggero tenor), who can manage Rossini’s florid writing with grace and shading. Although demanding on singers, Rossini’s Barber is not primarily a vehicle for their virtuosity. The song Figaro encourages the Count to sing – extempore under Rosina’s balcony, accompanying himself on the guitar – has anxious hesitations written in. Here the Count is a nervous young lover rather than a Spanish grandee. The first-night audience roared with laughter as García tuned his guitar before singing. Some of the laughter came from a hostile claque, but others were taken aback by the novelty of Rossini’s music, which carries the drama on – irresistibly, amusingly, touchingly – through the “new situations” Rossini and Sterbini made sure they included. “Make more Barbers!” indeed – all those who have tried have benefited from the Barber’s example: Rossini himself, Donizetti in Don Pasquale, Verdi in Falstaff. But there is only one Barber of Seville, perhaps because Rossini, in his gallantry, irony, and wit, had so much in common with Beaumarchais, and his alter ego Figaro, the Barber. David Garrett © 2011/2021

SYNOPSIS

ACT ONE SEVILLE, THE SQUARE OUTSIDE DR BARTOLO’S HOUSE.

Count Almaviva is smitten with Rosina and, not wanting her to be influenced by his wealth and title, he serenades her disguised as a penniless student, “Lindoro”. He’s joined by Figaro – the best-known barber in Seville – who tells him that Rosina’s guardian, old Dr Bartolo, keeps her locked indoors and plans to marry her himself. Figaro devises a plan to help Almaviva meet Rosina by pretending to be a drunken soldier with orders to be billeted at Bartolo’s house. INSIDE THE HOUSE. Rosina writes to the mysterious

“Lindoro”, while Don Basilio, her music teacher, warns Bartolo that Count Almaviva – who is known to admire Rosina – is in town. Bartolo resolves to marry Rosina the very next day. They are overheard by Figaro, who warns Rosina and promises to deliver her note. Count Almaviva arrives in his new disguise as the “drunken soldier” and passes Rosina a love note of his own. Bartolo objects to the intrusion and claims an official exemption from billeting soldiers. The police arrive to arrest Almaviva, but promptly release him after the Count quietly reveals his true identity.

ACT TWO AFTERNOON. Assuming his third disguise of the

day, Almaviva enters the house dressed as “Don Alonso”, a substitute music teacher, claiming Don Basilio is unwell. During the music lesson, “Don Alonso” reveals that he is “Lindoro”. He and Rosina declare their love for each other and make plans to elope. Figaro arrives to shave Bartolo and steals the key to Rosina’s balcony, but Bartolo overhears the lovers plotting, and, enraged, decides to bring forward his own wedding to Rosina. He asks Don Basilio fetch a notary and tells Rosina that “Lindoro” has really been wooing her on behalf of Count Almaviva. Heartbroken, Rosina agrees to marry Bartolo. THAT NIGHT, DURING A FIERCE STORM. Almaviva

and Figaro break into the house. Rosina angrily confronts “Lindoro”, who reveals his true identity, and the lovers are reconciled. But Bartolo has removed their ladder, thwarting their escape. Basilio arrives with the notary. Figaro persuades the notary to wed Rosina and Almaviva instead, and Basilio is bribed and threatened until he agrees to be a witness. Bartolo returns with soldiers but is too late. Conceding defeat, he gives his blessing to the marriage.

ROSSINI’S LOCKDOWN BEARD During the whole of the thirteen days Rossini never left the house, having taken a characteristic precaution against inducements to do so by letting his beard grow. “If I had been shaved,” he once said, “I should have gone out; and if I had gone out, I should have returned too late.” Thus did he buckle sternly to his wonderful task. (The Musical Times, 1882)

Graham Abbott CONDUCTOR

MORGAN PEARSE (FIGARO) WITH THE NZ OPERA CAST (PHOTO: DAVID ROWLAND)

A graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium, Graham Abbott has been Conductor-inResidence at the Elder Conservatorium of Music, Musical Director of Adelaide Chorus (now Adelaide Philharmonia Chorus), Associate Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Musical Director of Melbourne Chorale, Music Advisor to Chamber Made Opera, Melbourne, and Guest Chorus Master for the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. In a career spanning more than 30 years, he has conducted all the major Australian orchestras, opera companies and choral societies as well as many contemporary and early music ensembles. In 2021 his engagements have included returns to the Melbourne and Adelaide symphony orchestras, Four Winds Festival Bermagui, Bendigo Chamber Music Festival and Auckland Philharmonia (Unwrap the Music), as well as leading Chamber Music Weekends for Hayllar Music Tours. An enthusiast for the music of Handel, he has conducted Messiah throughout Australia and in the UK and New Zealand, and given the Australian premieres of works including Athalia, Ariodante, Agrippina, La resurrezione and the complete Carmelite music. Recent highlights include The Pearl Fishers (Opera Queensland, State Opera South Australia), Rachmaninoff’s Vespers and Israel in Egypt (Sydney Philharmonia Choirs), Handel’s Water Music (Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra), Dvořák’s Stabat Mater (Prague Chamber Orchestra), semi-staged performances of Bach’s St Matthew Passion (Opera Queensland), and Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony (Melbourne Chamber Orchestra and Brisbane’s Camerata). Also a respected music educator, he has recently been engaged to create a series of podcasts for the Melbourne Recital Centre and for Universal Music.

THE CREATIVE TEAM

Lindy Hume

Tracy Grant Lord

Matthew Marshall

DIRECTOR

DESIGNER

LIGHTING DESIGNER

Lindy Hume AM is Artistic Director of the Ten Days on the Island Festival in Tasmania and the Four Winds Festival, Bermagui. She is also the former artistic director of Opera Queensland, Sydney Festival, Perth International Arts Festival, West Australian Opera, Victoria State Opera and OzOpera. In addition to The Barber of Seville, 2021 will see her direct The Marriage of Figaro for New Zealand Opera and Madama Butterfly for Welsh National Opera. Internationally, she has directed Rigoletto, The Barber of Seville and Le Comte Ory for Seattle Opera; Carmen, La Cenerentola and Don Pasquale for Oper Leipzig; La bohème for Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin; Radamisto for the Händel-Festspiele in Halle; A Streetcar Named Desire and Norma for Theater St Gallen, Switzerland; Albert Herring and Phaedra for the Aldeburgh Festival; and The Barber of Seville, Rigoletto and Die Fledermaus for Houston Grand Opera. Her production of La Cenerentola has also been presented by NZ Opera, San Diego Opera and Royal Swedish Opera, Stockholm. As a festival director, Lindy Hume’s festivals combine high-level international programming with new Australian works, socially engaged practice, contemporary First Nations cultural practice and community participation. She was awarded the degree of Honorary Doctor of Letters from UWA in 2017 and has served on numerous boards including the Board of South East Arts (chair), Regional Arts NSW (chair), the Australia Council’s Major Performing Arts Board, Festival of Voices in Tasmania, and NORPA.

Based in Auckland and working with the region’s major performance companies, Tracy Grant Lord made her North American debut in 2017 with this production of The Barber of Seville for Seattle Opera. In 2021 her production designs include The Marriage of Figaro and Orpheus and Eurydice for New Zealand Opera, The Nutcracker for Tulsa Ballet and The Firebird for Royal New Zealand Ballet. In recent seasons she has designed productions of The Turn of the Screw and Semele for New Zealand Opera and premiered two new full-length ballet works: Liam Scarlett’s Dangerous Liaisons for Queensland Ballet and Texas Ballet Theater, and Ma Cong’s Tchaikovsky: The Man Behind the Music for Tulsa Ballet. Her work has met critical success in the United Kingdom, China and South East Asia, in particular Liam Scarlett’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Christopher Hampson’s ballets Cinderella and Romeo and Juliet, the latter receiving an Olivier Award nomination for Best New Dance Production in the UK. Tracy Grant Lord has received two Helpmann Award nominations, is a Churchill Fellow and holds a Bachelor of Spatial Design degree, and her work has been shown at both the Prague Quadrennial and World Stage Design exhibitions.

Matt Marshall has twice been nominated for Best Lighting Design in the Helpmann Awards (2012 and 2017) and has also received nominations for Best Lighting Design from the Australian Production Design Guild. With 20 years of design experience, he has worked for all the major performing arts companies and festivals in Australia. Recent designs include The Marriage of Figaro (New Zealand Opera), City of Lights (Perth Festival), James Galea’s Best Trick Ever (Sydney Opera House), Ballet at the Quarry (West Australian Ballet), The Other Place starring Kate Walsh (Fremantle Theatre Company), Tim Minchin’s music video The Absence of You, Cinderella (Seattle Opera), The Turn of the Screw (New Zealand Opera), Tchaikovsky: The Man Behind the Music (Tulsa Ballet), La bohème (Opera Australia), American Idiot (Shake & Stir Theatre Co. at QPAC), Athalia (Pinchgut Opera), Askungen (Royal Swedish Opera’s production of Rossini’s Cenerentola), Carmen (Oper Leipzig), Club Swizzle (Roundhouse London) and La Cenerentola (Oper Leipzig and San Diego Opera).

THE CREATIVE TEAM

Jason Barry-Smith

Carol Wellman Kelly

Clara Solly-Slade

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR

ASSOCIATE CHOREOGRAPHER

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

Jason Barry-Smith’s study in Brisbane, Munich, London and Rome led him to a career as a singer who is equally in demand as a singing teacher, conductor, arranger and director. With 39 opera and music theatre roles in his repertoire, he has performed operas, musicals and concert works in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Japan. In 2001 he directed a production of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas in Brisbane, winning the Perform/4MBS Award for Best Opera Production. He co-wrote and directed two of Opera Queensland’s most popular touring shows, The Food of Love and Waltzing our Matilda, and from 2014 to 2016 he was co-creative director of Blue Roo Theatre Company’s diversity embracing collaborations with Opera Queensland. As assistant director of La bohème (2014) and the premiere of Lindy Hume’s production of The Barber of Seville (2016) for OQ, he also took on the role of creative director of the industry-acclaimed Project Puccini and Project Rossini – an initiative in which regional performers were trained as the chorus for full-scale professional touring productions. In 2017 he directed The Merry Widow for OQ and the Queensland Music Festival, and earlier this year he was rehearsal director for Lindy Hume’s production of The Barber of Seville for West Australian Opera.

Trained in dance with an Arts degree from the Victorian College of The Arts, Carol Wellman Kelly’s diverse professional experience includes the genres of dance, theatre, puppetry, opera and musicals, and her 35 years of professional practice – dancing, teaching, choreographing, directing, facilitating and management – has taken her to many parts of the globe. She danced in professional contemporary dance companies across Australia before heading to London for seven years to work as a dancer, teacher and choreographer in the UK and Europe, including two productions with English National Opera. Returning to Australia, she became Assistant Director for Australian Dance Theatre with Artistic Director Garry Stewart, creating mainstage works that toured Europe, the UK, Asia and the USA. She is currently an independent freelance dance/theatre artist with roles including rehearsal director for numerous Tasdance professional dance productions, and choreographer for the State Theatre Company of SA and Windmill Theatre Company Musical Theatre productions of Pinocchio and Rumpelstiltskin, both of which have toured internationally. Other roles include movement direction on many theatre plays and productions; artistic advisor, project manager and workshop leader for Restless Dance Theatre; Movement Lecturer at Flinders University Drama department and Adelaide College of the Arts Dance department, where she has just remounted Garry Stewart’s full-length work Birdbrain. Carol Wellman Kelly is dedicated to creating access to the arts for all and is a trained Audio Describer for blind and partially sighted people.

Clara Solly-Slade graduated from the acting stream of the Adelaide College of the Arts in 2013. In 2016 she completed an international Acting Shakespeare course at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, London, and in 2017 trained with La Mama Experimental Theatre Company at their International Directors Symposium in Italy. In 2018 she received the Helpmann Academy’s Neil Curnow Award to fund a working trip to the USA, where she interned with The H.E.A.T Collective and Working Classroom – companies making theatre with a social justice agenda – as well as continuing her work with La Mama Experimental Theatre Company. She has worked as an artist with Sport for Jove Theatre, Pinchgut Opera and with the children’s cancer charity Camp Quality, and as a facilitator for several different youth theatre companies including Urban Myth Theatre of Youth, ACT NOW Theatre for Social Change and the Australian Theatre for Young People. She has recently founded her own socially conscious arts organisation, Hinge Arts, through which she has facilitated workshops with Australian Refugee Volunteers as well as the Western Sydney Migrant Resource Centre. Clara Solly-Slade is the recipient of the Helpmann Academy’s inaugural Emerging Director Fellowship, presented in partnership with State Theatre Company South Australia and State Opera South Australia and supported by the James and Diana Ramsay Foundation.

THE BARBER CAST

John Longmuir

Douglas McNicol

Katie Stenzel

COUNT ALMAVIVA

DR BARTOLO

ROSINA

One of Australia’s most acclaimed young tenors, John Longmuir was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and his operatic studies took place at the Australian Opera Studio. After making his professional debut as Ismaele in Nabucco in Tokyo, he joined Opera Australia, first as a young artist, then as a principal. He has sung all the major leggero tenor repertoire for Opera Australia including: Tamino in The Magic Flute, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Narciso in Il turco in Italia, Ernesto in Don Pasquale, Camille in The Merry Widow, Almaviva in The Barber of Seville, Nemorino in The Elixir of Love, Fenton in Falstaff and Beppe in Pagliacci. Recent performances for OA have included Juan in Don Quichotte, Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor and Gastone in the Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour production of La traviata. He has also appeared with West Australian Opera as Almaviva and sung Camille for both West Australian Opera and State Opera South Australia. Concert highlights include Carmina Burana with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the New National Theatre, Tokyo; Elijah with Sydney Philharmonia Choirs; Bach’s Mass in B minor with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra; Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Handel’s Israel in Egypt with the Berliner Cappella and Fauré’s La Naissance de Vénus at the Konzerthaus Berlin.

Dramatic bass-baritone Douglas McNicol has received high praise for roles including Jack Rance (La fanciulla del West); Scarpia (Tosca) for Opera Australia, Opera Queensland, West Australian Opera and in New Zealand; Jokanaan (Salome); Amonasro (Aida); Giorgio Germont (La traviata) for State Opera South Australia; and Iago (Otello) for State Opera and Opera Queensland. A multiple award winner, he has worked with all the major opera companies and orchestras in Australia and New Zealand and appeared in concerts in Italy and the UK. Notable engagements have included directorial roles for John Haddock’s Madeline Lee and Gianni Schicchi (in which he also performed the title role), Sharpless (Madama Butterfly), Tonio (Pagliacci), Don Pizarro (Fidelio), Leporello and the title role in Don Giovanni, Verdi’s Requiem, Owen Hart (Dead Man Walking), Horatio in Brett Dean’s Hamlet for Adelaide Festival, Bartolo (The Barber of Seville) and Scarpia for Perth Festival, and Roy Disney in The Perfect American by Philip Glass (Opera Queensland for the Brisbane Festival). His concert repertoire includes Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Mass in B Minor, St John Passion and St Matthew Passion; Purcell’s Tempest; Berlioz’s Childhood of Christ; Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony; the Fauré, Brahms and Mozart requiems; Handel’s Acis and Galatea and Messiah; Mendelssohn’s Elijah and The Bells by Rachmaninoff. Most recently, he has appeared as Peter Quince (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) for Adelaide Festival; and for State Opera as the Starkeeper and Dr Seldon in Carousel and as Judge Turpin in Sweeney Todd.

Katie Stenzel is a dynamic coloratura soprano who has established herself as an engaging and multifaceted performer. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Queensland University of Technology and subsequently completed a Master of Music Studies degree at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music. She has since performed throughout Australia and internationally with companies including Opera Queensland, Opera Australia, Brisbane Festival, Adelaide Fringe Festival and the Taipei Drama Festival in Taiwan. She shared the role of Rosina in the premiere of Lindy Hume’s production of The Barber of Seville (Opera Queensland, 2016). Other operatic roles have included Susanna (The Marriage of Figaro), Valencienne (The Merry Widow), Niece 1 (Peter Grimes), Zerlina (Don Giovanni) and Zorah (Ruddigore), and she created the role of Loretta in The Crushing: A Gothic Opera. She has also understudied roles such as Euridice and Amore in Orfeo ed Euridice, Kumudha (A Flowering Tree), Rose Maybud (Ruddigore) Berta (The Barber of Seville) Cunegonde (Candide) and Yum-Yum (The Mikado). She has appeared in concert works including Messiah, Carmina Burana and Saint-Saëns’ Oratorio de Noël. In 2020 Katie Stenzel made her Brisbane Music Festival debut alongside artistic director and pianist Alex Raineri in their recital Wonderland, and they were invited to reprise their performance to re-open the Queensland Performing Arts Centre after its six-month hiatus. She returned to the Brisbane Music Festival this year, reprising Wonderland and appearing in the digital-only event Mythology of Naked Flesh.

THE BARBER CAST

Morgan Pearse

Pelham Andrews

Teresa LaRocca

FIGARO

DON BASILIO

BERTA

Morgan Pearse is already established as one of the most exciting baritones of his generation. He studied at the Royal College of Music International Opera School and was a member of the Houston Grand Opera Studio (2014–15) before making his debut with English National Opera singing Figaro in The Barber of Seville. Since then he has sung the role in a return to ENO (2017) and with New Zealand Opera in Lindy Hume’s production (2019). Other opera highlights – recent and future – include Papageno (The Magic Flute) and Araspe (Tolomeo) for Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe; Sid (Albert Herring) for the Buxton Festival; Belcore (The Elixir of Love) for NZ Opera; Ned Keene (Peter Grimes) in concert with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra; and Farasmene (Radamisto) with Philharmonia Baroque; as well as covering the title role in Billy Budd at the Bolshoi. His dramatic journey with Beaumarchais’s character of Figaro also includes Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro (Karlsruhe and Opernhaus Zurich) and Corigliano’s Ghosts of Versailles (Wolf Trap Opera). Concert highlights include a recital at Wigmore Hall and solo appearances with the Birmingham Philharmonic, Moscow Musica Viva Chamber Orchestra, orchestra of the Zurich Opernhaus, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra, Gabrieli Consort, Academy of Ancient Music, Israel Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (Newbury Festival), Huddersfield Choral Society and King’s College Choir Cambridge. In Australia he has sung Messiah with the Tasmanian, Adelaide and West Australian symphony orchestras.

Pelham Andrews, a leading bass in Australia and New Zealand, trained in the UK, Germany and Australia, and won the 2005 McDonalds Aria Competition. He has been a principal artist for Opera Australia, State Opera South Australia, Victorian Opera and English National Opera, and appeared with the Auckland Philharmonia, Adelaide and Queensland symphony orchestras, and Sydney Philharmonia Choirs among others. His key roles have included Timur (Turandot), Sparafucile (Rigoletto), Padre Guardiano (La forza del destino), Colline (La bohème), Mephistopheles (La Damnation de Faust) and Lodovico (Otello) as well as concert works of Brahms, Fauré, Handel and Verdi. His repertoire ranges from core Italian, French, German and English operatic, sacred and symphonic concert works, to lesser-known classical works, contemporary compositions and traditional Russian folk music. This year, he has appeared as bass soloist in Tippett’s A Child of Our Time and as Snug in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Adelaide Festival), and as bass soloist in Verdi’s Requiem (Adelaide Youth Orchestra), and he will sing Messiah with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in December. He had also been engaged by both Victorian Opera and State Opera South Australia to sing the roles of Judd/Mr Bonner in Voss. Other recent performances include the Commendatore (Don Giovanni) for Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, bass soloist in music by J.S. Bach for the Adelaide Cantata Band and Adelaide Baroque, and for State Opera South Australia the Bonze (Madama Butterfly), Ben (Madeline Lee) and the title role in The Mikado.

Teresa LaRocca completed a drama and music degree at Adelaide University. She was a finalist in the ABC’s Young Performers Awards and went on to win the State Opera Aria, the Herald-Sun Aria and the Metropolitan Opera awards. Her roles for State Opera South Australia have included Norina (Don Pasquale), Parasha (Stravinsky’s Mavra), Yum-Yum (The Mikado), Despina (Così fan tutte), Liù (Turandot), Susanna (The Marriage of Figaro) and the soprano role in the highly acclaimed Flamma Flamma for the Adelaide Festival. For Opera Australia she has sung Queen of the Night (The Magic Flute), Susanna, the Milliner and Marianne (Der Rosenkavalier), the title role in Manon Lescaut and Rosina (The Barber of Seville), as well touring nationally with OzOpera as Musetta (La bohème) and Micaëla (Carmen). For the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, she has performed in Symphony Under the Stars, A Viennese Gala, Handel’s Messiah and as the soprano soloist in Vaughan Williams’ Sinfonia Antartica. This year’s concert highlights include the Innocence suite by Anne Cawrse with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and Verdi’s Requiem for the Big Sing in Tanunda with the Adelaide Youth Orchestra. As Musical Director for the Italian Choral and Arts Society, Teresa LaRocca directs three concerts and engagements this year, as well as producing and performing in St Clair Carols by Candlelight.

Morgan Pearse appears courtesy of Peter & Pamela McKee.

STATE OPERA ENSEMBLE Jeremy Tatchell

Nicholas Cannon

FIORELLO/OFFICER

AMBROGIO

New Zealand-born baritone Jeremy Tatchell studied both viola and voice at the ANU School of Music before joining Co-Opera in 2003, performing numerous major roles throughout Australia, Asia and Europe. Since moving to Adelaide in 2011, his roles with State Opera South Australia have included Rhadamanthus (Orpheus in the Underworld), First Nazarene (Salome), the Surgeon (La forza del destino), Imperial Commissioner (Madama Butterfly), Baron Douphol (La traviata), Parsi Rustomji (Satyagraha), Herald/Chorus (Otello), the title role in Bluebeard’s Castle, Colas (Bastien und Bastienne), the Speaker (Magic Flute), Masetto (Don Giovanni), Valentin (Faust), Angelotti (Tosca), Alfio (Cavalleria rusticana), Silvio (I Pagliacci), Manuel (La Vida Breve), Marco (Gianni Schicchi), Konrad Nachtigall (The Mastersingers) and Viscount Nicolas Cascada (The Merry Widow). He has also sung in the chorus for the Adelaide Festival productions of Saul (in which he also covered the lead) and Brett Dean’s Hamlet. His concert repertoire includes the Verdi, Fauré, Mozart, Duruflé and Brahms requiems; Carmina Burana; cantatas and major choral works of J.S. Bach; Stravinsky’s Mass and Les Noces; Handel’s Messiah, Israel in Egypt and Belshazzar; Haydn’s Creation; Purcell’s Come, Ye Sons of Art; Schubert’s Winterreise; Schumann’s Liederkreis and Spanische Liebeslieder; Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs and Fantasia on Christmas Carols; Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death and Ibert’s Chansons de Don Quichotte. Recent engagements have included Mendelssohn’s Elijah for the Big Sing McLaren Vale and Opera in the Vines at Coriole Wines.

Nicholas Cannon is a versatile director, performer and teacher. He studied the Lecoq Technique in Barcelona and Paris and holds a Music Theatre degree from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. His roles with State Opera have included Johnny Dowd (Summer of the Seventeenth Doll), Pish-Tush (The Mikado), the Lieutenant (Madeline Lee), Kromov (The Merry Widow), Papageno (The Magic Flute), Quick Lamb (Cloudstreet!), Jigger Craigin (Carousel) and, most recently, Anthony Hope in Sweeney Todd. He has also appeared in operetta roles for Coburg Landestheater, Germany; as a Tritone in Marilyn Forever (Adelaide Festival); as Chris Barnes (Metro Street) in the Adelaide Cabaret Festival; and as Dr Falke (Die Fledermaus), Don Alfonso (Così fan tutte), Sharpless (Madama Butterfly), Marcello (La bohème) and the title roles in Eugene Onegin and The Marriage of Figaro with Co-Opera, touring regional Australia. For this year’s Adelaide Fringe Festival he created Songs of Travel & Bush Poetry – a one-man show featuring music by Ralph Vaughan Williams. He has undertaken director internships in the UK, France and Germany, and with Opera Australia, and his Australian directing credits include Love Burns, Christina’s World, Dido and Aeneas and La Vida Breve for State Opera. He has also directed Acis and Galatea in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens; Price Check (Loaded Productions, Adelaide); A Little Night Music (Watch This, Melbourne); L’Heure espagnole/Gianni Schicchi (Lyric Opera of Melbourne); The Gondoliers (Pacific Opera, Sydney); five productions for CoOpera and several operas as Artistic Director of Mopoke Theatre Productions.

SOPRANOS Eleanor Brasted Kristen Hardy Alexandra Scott MEZZO-SOPRANOS Catherine Campbell Susan Ferguson Jenn Tranter TENORS Matthew Byrne Michael Denholm Jiacheng Ding Nic Lock Callum McGing James Nicholson Sean Tanner Andy Turner Christopher Webb BASSES Christian Evans Daniel Goodburn Greg John Jamie Moffat David Perry Alex Roose

THE BARBER IN

REHEARSAL THIS PAGE CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT:

John Longmuir (Count Almaviva) and Katie Stenzel (Rosina); Morgan Pearse (Figaro); the Ensemble with members of the cast; Pelham Andrews (Don Basilio). FACING PAGE: Conductor Graham Abbott and assistant director Jason Barry-Smith; Teresa LaRocca (Berta) with Nicholas Cannon (Ambrogio) and the Ensemble. PHOTOS: SODA STREET PRODUCTIONS

ADELAIDE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA VIOLINS

CELLOS

HORNS

Elizabeth Layton** Guest Concertmaster Cameron Hill** Associate Concertmaster Alison Heike** Principal 2nd Violin Lachlan Bramble† Associate Principal 2nd Violin Janet Anderson Ann Axelby Erna Berberyan Minas Berberyan Gillian Braithwaite Hilary Bruer Elizabeth Collins Judith Coombe Belinda Gehlert Zsuzsa Leon Michael Milton Jennifer Newman Julie Newman Emma Perkins Liam Pilgrim Alison Rayner

Sharon Grigoryan** Acting Section Principal Sarah Denbigh† Acting Associate Principal Christopher Handley Sherrilyn Handley Gemma Phillips David Sharp Cameron Waters

Sarah Barrett† Timothy Skelly

VIOLAS

Mitchell Berick** Acting Section Principal Darren Skelton

PIANO CONTINUO

BASSOONS

ONSTAGE GUITAR

Mark Gaydon** Leah Stephenson

Emanuel Auciello Guest

Justin Julian** Acting Section Principal Linda Garrett† Guest Associate Principal Martin Alexander Lesley Cockram Anna Hansen Rosi McGowran Michael Robertson

DOUBLE BASSES David Schilling** Jonathon Coco† Jacky Chang Harley Gray Belinda Kendall-Smith

TRUMPETS David Khafagi** Guest Section Principal Gregory Frick

PERCUSSION Steven Peterka** Jamie Adam Sami Butler

** denotes Section Principal † denotes Associate Principal

FLUTES Geoffrey Collins** Lisa Gill

OBOE Renae Stavely†

CLARINETS

for State Opera Anthony Hunt

DONORS State Opera South Australia thanks its donors for their generous support.

PLATINUM

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR’S CIRCLE

Peter & Pamela McKee

John & Kate Irving Drs Geoff & Sorayya Martin

GOLD The late Lorraine Drogemuller Leigh Emmett Master Elizabeth Olsson Bruce Saint Sibby Sutherland

SILVER

Master Elizabeth Olsson Dr Leon Pitchon Dr Christine Rothauser Sibby Sutherland

OPERA ACADEMY 2021 Sally Crafter in memory of Shirley Crinion formerly Shirley Crafter

The Alfonzetti Family

Sue Crafter in memory of Shirley Crinion formerly Shirley Crafter

Stuart Maunder AM

The Friends of State Opera

Kevin & Kaaren Palmer

John Holmes

Josephine Prosser

Joan Lyons Beth & John Shepherd Barry Worrall & Susan Coldicutt The Friends of State Opera

CONTINUO BEQUEST CIRCLE Master Elizabeth Olsson Dr Christine Rothauser Dr Geoffrey Seidel

DONORS

BRONZE Dr Margaret Arstall

Barbara & Paul Green

Christopher Stone

Susan & Graeme Bethune

L & J Greenslade

Anne Sutcliffe

The Hon. David & Mrs Elizabeth Bleby

Sam & Margo Hill-Smith

Guila Tiver & Denis Harrison

Robert Kenrick

Sue Tweddell

David Bullen

Teresa LaRocca

Glen & Robina Weir

Pam Caldwell

Margaret Lehmann

Peter & Margaret Cannon Bruce Cleland

Hugh MacLachlan & Fiona MacLachlan OAM

Prof. Julian White AM & Dr Beata M Byok

Angela Cook & Derek Brown

Dr Ruth Marshall & Tim Muecke

Colin Cowan

Drs Geoff & Sorayya Martin

Tony & Rachel Davidson Jan & Peter Davis

Dr Thomas Millhouse & Dr Marina Delpin

Bruce Debelle AO, QC

K & D Morris

Rosalie & Jacob van Dissel

Chris Perriam

Jane & Ian Doyle

Andrew Robertson

Dr Paul Drysdale

Ben Robinson

Em. Prof. Anne Edwards

Glenys G Scott

Meg & Jack Favilla

Gwynnyth Shaughnessy

We also thank our many Encore Supporters for their valued contributions in the past year.

Anonymous (2)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Production Team

Honorary Life Members

PRODUCTION MANAGER Ben Flett

Hugh Cunningham Richard Brown

RÉPÉTITEUR Michael Ierace STAGE MANAGER Jess Nash ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGERS

Emily Barraclough, Steph Bone HEAD OF WARDROBE Tracey Richardson HEAD OF WIGS, HAIR & MAKEUP Jana Debiasi WARDROBE CONSTRUCTION & MAINTENANCE

Denise Strawhan WARDROBE CONSTRUCTION Katie Szabo WIGS, HAIR & MAKEUP ASSISTANTS

Dina Giaccio, Beverley Freeman, Vanessa Lee Shirley DRESSERS Kent Green, Sue Nicola PROPS Anto Dal Santo PYROTECHNICS Howard & Sons HEAD MECHANIST Ben Brooks MECHANIST Mark Fisher SURTITLES OPERATOR Aaron Pelle

Adelaide Festival Centre Production Staff

State Opera Board of Management John Irving Chair Imelda Alexopoulos Dr Beata Byok Peter Michell Dr Thomas Millhouse Master Elizabeth Olsson Polly Tembel

State Opera Staff EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Yarmila Alfonzetti ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Stuart Maunder AM CHIEF FINANCE OFFICER Nicole Mathee PRODUCTION MANAGER Ben Flett PRODUCER – REGIONAL LIVESTREAM & DIGITAL LIBRARY Phillipa Sprott ASSOCIATE PRODUCER – PRODUCTION & EDUCATION Monique Hapgood COMPANY STAGE MANAGER Jess Nash HEAD OF MUSIC Anthony Hunt

AFCT PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Jane Baird

HEAD OF MARKETING & DEVELOPMENT

HEAD MECHANIST Dave Sanders

Sidonie Henbest

HEAD FLY Adrian Peskett

MARKETING EXECUTIVE Olga Grudinina

HEAD LIGHTING Rick Worringham

DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR Richelle Weiher

LIGHTING BOARD OPERATOR Cameron Lane

DONOR ADMINISTRATION

FOLLOW SPOTS Hannah Aylett, Bob O’Mahony

Suzie Stevens, Max Walburn

HEAD SOUND TECHNICIAN & OPERATOR

ACCOUNTANT Sarah Hart

Mick Jackson

CONTRACTS ADMINISTRATOR Li Li Fisher

FLOOR SOUND TECHNICIAN Martin Cartlidge

BUSINESS SUPPORT OFFICER Elisabet Cada

Program Credits PROGRAM EDITOR & DESIGNER Yvonne Frindle PHOTOGRAPHY Soda Street Productions,

David Rowland (NZ) COVER ART novel. PRINTER Print Solutions

OUR PARTNERS G OV E R N M E N T The Australian Federal Government through

F O U N DAT I O N PA R T N E R

The South Australian Government through Arts South Australia and the Department for Education

P R O D U C T I O N PA R T N E R

A R T I ST S U P P O R T E R S

Pet er & Pa mel a M c Kee

O P E R A & I N D U ST R Y